The Dodgers on Monday traded middle infielder Chin-lung Hu to the New York Mets for minor league pitcher Michael Antonini.

Antonini, a 25-year-old left-hander from Pennsylvania, has a 25-26 minor league record with a 4.04 earned-run average in 96 games, including 84 starts.

Hu, 26, has spent most of his career in the minor leagues after signing with the Dodgers in 2003. He was the Dodgers' minor league player of the year in 2007.

Hu appeared in 96 games with the the Dodgers over the last four seasons, including 14 games during two stints in 2010. He has a career batting average of .191 at the major league level.

It's too bad for Hu, who kept trying to break through with the Dodgers but couldn't hit worth a lick in the Show. As Jon Weisman noted:

Hu hasn't shown any potential with the bat since 2007, when he had an on-base percentage of .364 and slugging percentage of .507 in Double-A and Triple-A combined. In his major-league career, Hu has a .241 OBP and .283 slugging over 191 plate appearances. Nonetheless, he could be Juan Castro for some team, and I always thought the Dodgers could be that team.

Ultimately, Hu was out of options and there were doubts he'd make the Opening Day roster, so this is a way of salvaging something for him, given the odds against him.

Hu leaves Los Angeles with the most plate appearances (191) of any Taiwan-born player in major-league history, ahead of Hong-Chih Kuo (36) and Chin-Feng Chen (25).

It's interesting that Weisman brings up Castro, alluding to Ned Colletti's penchant for picking up aged veterans with declining skills batting around the .200 level. If not Castro--whom we did pick up this offseason--why not Hu? Perhaps in 10 years, we'll pick him up again anyway.